Lovin' His Presence....

So, back to my amazing weekend......Saturday afternoon, Keith and the boys drove up to join in on the fun. We had a lot of fun watching our four boys playing with Mark and Amy's four girls, and just generally catching up. Mark and Amy generously offered to watch the kids so Keith and I could go freely enjoy the service.

Worship again was amazing. A whole different vibe going on, as the worship team was entirely different. I remember some of the songs.....we sang "How Great is our God" and "How Great Thou Art" and many many others.......I still experienced the tangible Presence of God....it was wonderful!! I know Keith was amazed by the worship, not just the musicians and their talent, but the genuine sense of free and lavish worship to God.....that really impressed him, the good kind of impressed that is......!!

When Bill got up to speak, he told us he didn't have a message, he just wanted to talk about the Holy Spirit. In the past, I have only heard teachings on the Holy Spirit, educational and as I now see it very impersonal. Bill spoke about the person of the Holy Spirit with such love and tenderness. It was really wonderful......I can't remember all the specifics of what he shared, and like I said in my last post, I hope to put notes up in the future.....but, it was so refreshing to hear a man in love with the Holy Spirit...he did teach a bit to clarify on how we have the Holy Spirit in us, but we don't always have the Holy Spirit resting on us...he talked about grieving, and quenching the Spirit ....

he also went to great lengths to show us how the Holy Spirit is like a dove, (using the example of when Jesus was baptized and a dove came from heaven to rest on him, which was to create a picture of the Holy Spirit)...and if we were to have a dove resting on our shoulder, how would we then go on, we would walk with great care to not cause him to fly away.....he spoke of many different Scriptures, some I had never even realized were in reference to the Holy Spirit.....it was just so good.....he also really impressed on us how important spending time in the Presence of the Lord really is, more so in our own private times with Him and how that carries with us into our lives and how we can just draw on it when we go out into the stores and in public and how we can affect people because we are carrrying His Presence with us....and it's His Presence that truly transforms lives......he talked about Peter and how in the book of Acts, he carried the Presence of the Lord on Him, I am assuming in the person of the Holy Spirit and everywhere he went, his shadow healed the sick....because he was so saturated in the Presence of God!! So cool!! I could probably go on, but all in all it was a very special message to me......Bill ended his message with having us sing, "Turn your eyes upon Jesus..." ....it was very precious!!

He had us all pray for someone nearby, to have sweet times in His Presence and that we would be carriers of His Presence into the workplace, the marketplace or wherever we would go and that we would change the atmosphere wherever we went....we would be carriers of His Glory..Oh so sweet....I prayed with a woman nearby and it was so precious and we hugged each other with such love and we had never met before.....there really was a strong spirit of love in that place let me tell you.....I think from there he went into ministering to people through healing, and like the night before he called out what he felt in His Spirit that the Lord wanted to heal and had everyone pray.....I know Keith was really looking forward to this part, because he has several health issues....one that really cleared up just during worship was a difficulty with his vision he had been having......he also received prayer for his pinched nerve in his back that has been causing him pain in his lower right leg, as well as a hernia he happens to have in his gut area....what was awesome to me was how the people around those who needed to be healed just hung in there and kept praying with them and talking with the ones being ministered to...it was just such a spirit of unity, like a true body working together for the good of the whole body...it was sweet!! We prayed for Keith a long time....he hasn't received healing yet....but, the Lord chose to do another type of work that night......after the "official" service was over, meaning Bill is done and the pastors are now ministering to various individuals and the worship is soft in the backdrop of all that is still going on.....Keith and I were talking with the guys from the row behind us that had been praying with Keith for so long....and one of them starting asking Keith if he was interested in missions.....so Keith sat down and began to tell him a story, as only Keith does....and basically gave a backdrop of his life, ha.....anyway, the guy said, the reason I asked is because I got this picture for you and you were carrying a red flag and forging across a river were there was no bridge, but you forged on anyway and each step you took the bridge just formed beneath you as you crossed the river, and there was a large group following you kind of like a flock of geese and you were the one in the front of the V, carrying your flag and he said at one point he felt like the flag turned in the flag of China.....

Whoa!! I thought that was a very powerful word....that the Lord will use Keith to forge ahead with people behind....then someone else sat with Keith and shared how he felt like because you have a hernia in the front and in the back and he put his hands on each area and said it's like you're torn from the front to the back, and that it's like a picture of your life since you had become a Christian and all the things that had happened to you over the years had been stealing your destiny, and that God wants to restore your destiny and heal you from front to back and everything in between, and then he said the Lord is your shield and your buckler with his hand on his front, and your rear guard with his hand on Keith's back and that he will restore to you your destiny....there was more to it, but we aren't remembering it ...he was essentially saying there has been a tear in Keith's life and that God was gonna heal him from the front to the back and all his organs in between as well as his destiny in Christ.... whew! ...then, I can't believe there is still more....someone asked us about our marriage, I honestly can't remember what, but he felt like the Lord told him to pray for our marriage to be strengthened...well, we both laughed because we knew it was the Lord, considering our situation of late...and we ended up receiving some powerful prayer time of blessings prayed over our marriage....I was laughing the whole time because I was so amazed all that God was doing in this one evening.....and there's still more....oh and by the way, I think we are gonna have a really amazing marriage......

yahoo!!!! ....so I was asked if I was interested in becoming more artistic by someone and they said they felt the Lord wanted to birth new creativity into me...he asked specifically about painting and dance, which honestly are hidden passions of mine...he also prayed powerfully regarding this very blog and how the Lord would use it and strengthen my clarity and ability to write......it was colorful and wonderful, I just laughed and laughed.....thank you Lord!! .......when they finished praying over me for the arts ...we discussed my name...Lydia, the woman who dyed purple cloth in the Bible, she was an artist and she worked with the color of royalty.....sweet, I just kept saying I know, I know and my middle name is Joy.....I love my name!!! (I haven't always by the way).....there is so much power and deeper meaning in our names...He knows our name....I think he hand picked it just for each one of us.......okay, one more word for Keith and it was something about how the Lord wants you to pay attention to your night seasons, because he's gonna start speaking to you, through dreams and visions.......

All in all.....we experienced so much love from our Father, he really spoke to us in such personal ways, it was so dear ...... I am still reeling and still quite full of joy I simply can't contain it all.....He really is all about a love relationship with us, He truly loves us and wants to show us that He cares about the intimate details of our lives......I am just so grateful for this and it leaves me so hungry for more amazing sweet times with Him.......!!